What do you think of when you think of a Godzilla movie? Lots of giant monsters, people in rubber suits hitting one another, that terrible movie from 1998? All apply when contemplating seeing the new Godzilla movie. My opinion? It’s good, picking up where appropriately where a proper Godzilla should be, but with a whole lot of fluff that doesn’t necessarily entertain.
If you came to see giant monsters fight (which, thank goodness, they included because Godzilla fights other monsters while people look on scared. Anyone who watches the older Godzilla movies knows this), you’ve gotta wait about two hours. There’s an undeniable focus in building up Godzilla, which they do well, but even more of a focus designed around the actors. The actors don’t do a bad job, but I didn’t necessarily care about their fates (after all, I came to see giant monsters fight one another). Then again, how could one expect to put out a movie about giant monsters and don’t focus on people acting and expect it to do well? Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabee are among the actors, but you probably won’t care if they, or anyone else, dies in the movie, which brings me to the next point.
This movie has quite the kill count. Obviously tons of people died in the original Godzilla movies, as buildings would collapse with people inside, but it was indirect. This movie changed that for the better. You see people actually being killed, not necessarily in a gory way, but it still resonates in the film. It’s not just monsters fighting, but people dying because of it. You may not connect to the characters (they’re very one dimensional, serving to occupy one role and that role never changes), but you may flinch at some of the turns of the story.
The film is also a little self-aware, and because of that, a little pompous. THe first time you actually get to see Godzilla fighting is on a television set for about 20 seconds. By the time you get back to the action, Godzilla is heading back out into the ocean. It comes off a little cheap as the movie decides to continually dangle the real reason you came for the movie further away once again.
However, once the proper fighting does begin, it kicks in real hard. The scale of the monsters is fantastic and the CGI is truly well done. Godzilla is massive, as he should be, and doesn’t resemble the T-rex that he did in 1998. The first monster we see is far smaller, and, well, here’s a spoiler, the second new monster is nearly as large as the big guy himself. The scale remain consistent for the movie and it really demonstrates Godzilla’s power and instinct. Yes, he’s a big lizard, but he’s ridiculously smart in combat, grappling with foes and bowling them over and using the environment around him in order to control the battle. The atomic breath receives treatment similar to the actual fight scene, but it’s done very well.
So, final verdict? I wouldn’t go see this in the theatre if I were you. You’ll wind up waiting quite some time to see the fight scene, and I don’t feel you should pay to sit through all the 2 hours of build up and plastic characters just to see what you paid for. Rent it on Redbox if you’d like. The movie and its fight scene are really good and I look forward to the next one, but I probably will continue waiting until it becomes available to rent.
Travis's 2 cents 